USAID Partner Trains Environmental Journalists in Altai

(August 19, 2011, Altaisky Krai)  Russia’s forests comprise 22% of the world’s total.   Raising awareness about the important role forests play in mitigating climate change is one of the objectives of a USAID-sponsored project implemented by the Center for Environmental Innovation (CEI), a Russian NGO.   Last month, CEI brought nearly 30 journalists to the Shipunovsky District of Altai to learn new methods in environmental journalism and see firsthand how effective forest management can play a central role in mitigating the effects of climate change.  “We held the training here for a reason,”  says George Safonov, Director of CEI.  “Altai is a prime example of climate change processes taking place on the planet.”   Altai’s glaciers, which feed the Ob river, Central Siberia’s main waterway, are shrinking. Forest fires, deforestation, and intensive farming have contributed to massive soil degradation, leading to periodic “black storms” and a situation in which more than 40% of the region’s harvest is threatened. Leading scientific experts on climate change and forest management were also at the training, and assisted the journalists as they explored topics such as the impact of climate change on nature, economy, agriculture and forestry, as well on as the lives of the indigenous peoples of the Altai. (The above project, "Forest and Climate Change: Challenges and Solutions," runs through 2013.   CEI Director George Safonov is also a member of the official Russian delegation at negotiations on the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN and the Kyoto Protocol.)

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